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Saturday, August 12, 2017

Book Review - The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

Charlie Quinn has had a rough night and accidentally ends up bringing someone else’s smartphone home. When this person calls her the next morning she answers the phone. That seems to be a mistake. As she walks into the school building where the other guy works, she ends up in the middle of a school shooting. The shooter, Kelly, is an 18-year-old girl. Charlie and her father are both lawyers in their small town and they take the case. Something about this shooting doesn’t seem right and even though two people have died that day, it doesn’t seem fair to let Kelly end up on death row. Can they help this young woman?

Twenty-eight years earlier, Charlie’s life was destroyed by an attack on her family home. Her father has always been a defense attorney and not everyone seemed to agree with his choice of cases. That day her mother, Gamma, was killed with a gun and her sister Samantha was shot in the head. The prologue is being told from Samantha’s point of view, but in chapter one the reader has no idea if she is still alive. The story begins with Charlie (Charlotte), her father Rusty and Kelly Wilson.

Charlie has been the Benjamin of the family and she’s the one that got away, so that makes her the lucky one. Even though no one really knows what happened that night, twenty-eight years ago. She became a lawyer in her dad’s firm and is separated from her husband. She doesn’t seem very happy. Kelly lives in a bad part of town. She has been bullied all her life and has had an abortion a couple of years ago. She’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but doesn’t seem to be a bad person. So why did she decide to take a gun to school?

Everyone who knows Karin Slaughter and her previous books is probably used to reading a lot of medical terms as well as gross and detailed descriptions of murder scenes. Besides that, we don't know who did it at the beginning of the book. That makes The Good Daughter different from her other stories. The main character is a lawyer who does not trust the local police force. Instead of to the hospital and police station, Karin Slaughter takes us to court this time and shows us that she can do something completely different equally well.

Advice

The Good Daughter is a standalone crime novel that has the potential to lead to a new series. Everyone who loves a good crime or suspense novel should definitely read this one. Fans of Karin Slaughter’s previous books will love the story too.